Diving board support



P 1959" s. R. SMITH ET AL 2,882,052

DIVING BOARD SUPPORT Filed Oct. 16, 1956 INVENTORS SAMUEL R. SMITH RENE E. DUPONT ATTORNEYS DIVING BOARD SUPPORT Samuel R. Smith and Rene E. Dupont, Canby, reg.,

assignors to S. R. Smith Co., Inc., Canby, 0reg., a corporation of Oregon Application October 16, 1956, Serial No. 616,202 1 Claim. (Cl. 272-66) The present invention relates to diving boards and the mounting thereof.

Diving boards are usually made of wood, sometimes in the form of a unitary plank and sometimes being laminated, and until fairly recently the spring action thereof has depended entirely upon the resiliency of the wood. This has resulted in the fabrication of diving boards of considerable length, formed of straight-grained, expensive woods. Such boards usually have a short life under hard usage, since the constant flexing thereof, and the shocks to which the grain of the wood is subjected, result in fatigue. Divers have been severely injured by fatigued boards cracking sharply. Efforts to alleviate this condition have resulted in the placing of rubber shock pads under a board at its mounting attachment points, and the use of resilient mounting means such as disclosed in the patent to Samuel R. Smith, No. 2,645,483 issued July 14, 1953. It has been found that the life of the board is materially increased, and the springing action of the apparatus enhanced, by the use of such resilient mountings.

An object of the present invention is to simplify the resilient mounting employed while retaining the advantages noted above.

A further object of the present invention involves the following concept: The ordinary diving board ranges in length from about twelve feet to about fourteen feet in length. Such a board normally projects a considerable distance in either direction from the rim of the swimming pool adjacent which it is mounted. A large number of swimming pools, however, are built in crowded quarters, which is particularly true of small pools on the grounds of private homes, resulting in crowding of the diving board into otherwise usable space and its being positioned many times in a spot where it would be awkward or dangerous to use. According to the present invention, not only is the length of the support reduced to a total of two feet whereby it may be mounted in very cramped quarters, but the length of the board maybe reduced to six feet while still achieving the springing effect of a twelve foot board.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a diving board construction which is easy to fabricate, erect and maintain, and which is of long life under hard usage.

The objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from inspection of the accompanying drawings, taken in connection with the following description, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is an exploded view, partially broken away, of a diving board assembly in accordance with the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a vertical, longitudinal section assembly.

The diving board mount of the present invention comprises a wide, U-shaped metal spring generally indicated through the 2,882,052 Patented Apr. 14, 1959 at 10. The U-shaped spring for a board approximately sixteen inches wide and six to eight feet long, indicated at 11, is formed from a strap of spring steel approximately fifteen and one-half inches wide and five-sixteenths of an inch thick, bent into U-shape with the span thereof between the arms approximately twelve and onehalf inches and the length of the U approximately twentyfour inches. The spring comprises a lower arm 12, a parallel upper arm 13, and a connecting bight portion 14. A spring of greater thickness can be employed with bracing the arms, provided that the force imposed by a diver will bend the upper arm 13 downwardly some fraction of an inch. However, a spring steel strap of five-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, with the extremities of the arms rigidly connected together to prevent downward bending of the upper arm, is more satisfactory for a number of reasons, including the achievement of better springing action. In accordance with the preferred form of the present invention, the arm extremities are connected together by a pair of vertical brace members 15 having horizontally directed end portions 16. The brace members extend between the extremities of the arms 12 and 13 with their horizontally directed end portions 16 preferably being welded to the surfaces of the arms. The brace members 15 are preferably formed of spring steel of the same character as the U-shaped spring. The mount thus formed constitutes an open, rectangular structure when in normal condition as illustrated in Fig. 1. There is no diagonal bracing, whereby the stresses imposed by a diving board being bent downwardly, as indicated in dash outline in Fig. 2, results in the mount being temporarily deformed into a rhomboidal outline.

The preferred means for anchoring the mount comprises anchoring bolts 17 which extend through the end of the lower arm 12 and the lower end portions 16 of the upright braces, the heads of the bolts being imbedded in a horizontally surfaced base such as the concrete rim 18 of a swimming pool. The bight of the U-shaped member 10 is positioned away from the edge of the pool and is anchored by a plurality of imbedded anchoring bolts 19. The preferred manner of securing the diving board 11 to the upper surface of the upper arm 13 is to provide openings 20 through the arm and the attached upper lateral ends of the braces 15 for the reception of a pair of bolts 21, the heads of which are received in countersunk openings 22 in a cushion strip 23 placed on the arm. A pair of openings 24 in the rear portion of the arm 13 adjacent the bight 14 receive a pair of bolts 25, which pass through openings 26 in the board 11.

The bolts 25 pass successively downward through openings in a metal strip 27, a resilient cushion strip 28, the board 11, a resilient cushion strip 29, and the spring 11. Nuts 30 engage the bolts 21 and nuts 31 engage the bolts 25 to secure the mount to the base and the board to the mount, as illustrated. The front cushion strip is approximately three-quarters of an inch thick by three inches wide and the lower, rear cushion strip is approximately one-quarter of an inch thick by three inches wide, whereby the proper slope is given to the board and the board protected from wear and damp rot.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that a small pool in a crowded space may be provided with a diving board having normal action. A six-foot board may occupy a mounting space two feet wide, and will project over the pool a total distance of four feet. Such a board will have the same action as the normal twelvefoot board.

Having illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of our invention, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the same permits of modification in detail and arrangement. All such modifications as tangular frame capable of assuming a rhornboidal out line under deformingrstresses, said frame consisting of awide strip of spring metal bent into a U-shape spring having a lower arm and an upper arm connected together by an integral, upright bight portion, a spring metal brace extending vertically between and connected to the ends of the arms of the spring metal strip, means horizontally anchoring the lower arm of said spring metal strip, a flexible diving board mounted upon the upper arm of said. spring" metal strip and extending forwardly therefrom in alignment with the arms of the spring metal strip, and means connecting the diving board to said upper arm of the spring metal strip adjacent the end of the arm and adjacent the bight of the spring metal strip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,784,69 Kline Dec. 9, 1930 1,915,490 Trainor June 27, 1933 2,084,310 Breuer June 22, 1937 2,645,483 Smith July 14, 1953 2,664,668 Turner Jan. 5, 1954 

